Body Image Issues in Young Girls

Body image issues are more disturbing topic in the modern world that it actually should be. In the first place it concerns young girls who nowadays are positive that the way they look will in the first and foremost determine the way they will live.

Body image issues have shifted aside such important things as the beauty of inner world and intelligence and so many other things that are no less important. That is why there is so much concern about weight and ideals that are impossible to reach and eating disorders have become a normal thing. Besides the difficulties that are connected with the period of adolescence nowadays young girls have to face the demands and expectations of the society that are supported by the delusions of mass media. Perhaps, it is time for a change and a shift from body image issues obsession to something more essential and eternal as internal image.

If you follow the history, it is possible to trace the difference in the goals that girls used to set in, for instance, Victorian times – which were more connected with the development and improvement of an inner self and character and qualities. Nowadays it is the opposite. No one pays so much attention to that is inside as long as external image correlates and conforms to the existing standards. Body image issues have become prior.

In the modern world where money is made from air, advertising industries play on the weak points of such young girls making all the speech come to body image issues. They create new standards and then offer new products that are believed to be the cure and solution to all the problems, therefore making all these girls buy all the nonsense and useless things that actually will never make them a beautiful person on their own. All these skin care and make-up stiff is all right and can help in hiding flaws and so on but it will never make a girl truly beautiful if she neglects her inner self development and lives only with the external.

The thing is that young girls nowadays cannot avoid the pressure when so much emphasis is laid on the body image issues. What they see, and moreover, what they learn to focus on is the images of impossibly thin girls on the covers of magazines that are positioned as ideals. Most of the female population do not look like this and unable to do so due to the individual characteristics. And this is great. However, the result is the same everywhere – all these magazine images leave young girls with a certainty that they are imperfect, that they have flaws that need to be fixed and soon. When you do so, you will be attractive and happy. However, this is not the way things work. Frequently this understanding comes to many of the young girls too late.

Another thing is that due to the efforts of mass media it is a long time already that young girls have become positive about beauty equals thinness and flawless skin. By all means and all costs. The result is that we have got so many girls who suffer from this or that eating disorder still being obsessed with body image issues. The problem has become psychological even more than it is physical. The only way out is to start teaching your kids to lead a healthy way of life. With a proper diet plan (which means healthy food and not starvation) and a lot of activity in life there will be no need in any weight loss programs or the like. Besides, it is very important to pay attention to young girls and teach them in time that what they are from the inside is no less important (and even more essential) than what is on the outside. These ideas first of all should come from a family where parents are models of behavior for their kids.

Body image issues should not be neglected; however, it is crucial to make a young girl understand that self-respect is necessary and orientation for a healthy lifestyle is a core thing on the way to health and beauty. There are no healthy and fit people who are not attractive. But those who try too hard in their goal to resemble cover magazine models frequently end up with a lot of disorders and more dissatisfaction with life.